The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ficus benjamina xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99. The varietal denomination of the new cultivar is xe2x80x98Mini Midnightxe2x80x99. The new variety was discovered as a mutation in a controlled planting of Ficus benjamina xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99 in a greenhouse in _s""Gravenzande, The Netherlands in 01/05 in 1996.
The new variety is a mutation of the variety Ficus xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99 U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,856. The new variety was selected by The Discovery of a mutation and selected by Jan van Geest. The Ficus xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99 Plants that the new variety mutated from were in a controlled planting under glass in Gravenzade, The Netherlands at The Kwekerij P. van Geest in Jan. 5, 1996. The new variety was first asexually propagated by vegetative cutting in February 1996, in xe2x80x98sxe2x80x99Gravenzande, The Netherlands. Asexual reproduction through succeeding generations has established that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.
Comparison of the Ficus xe2x80x98Mini Midnightxe2x80x99 differs from the parent plant the Ficus xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99 in that the size of the leaves are much smaller and the plant has a heavy lateral branching than that of the parent plant. The growth pattern is much more compact and the internodes are of much shorter length. Midnight grown under the same conditions of the xe2x80x98Mini Midnightxe2x80x99 will have larger leaves, sparser branching and internode lengths will be longer. The leaf color of the Midnight and the xe2x80x98Mini Midnightxe2x80x99 are nearly identical when grown under identical conditions. The leaves of both xe2x80x98Midnightxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98Mini Midnightxe2x80x99 are thick glossy and leathery and a dark attractive green that is almost blue-black without variegation on the leaves.